Upper Hutt Posse: “Death to all oppressors”

I hadn’t heard of Upper Hutt Posse before but they have just been given a Legacy Award at the Legacy Award at the 2018 Vodafone New Zealand Music Award ceremony.

On accepting the award frontman Dean Hapeta spoke against involvement in wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, suggested New Zealand should assist Palestine against ‘racist’ Israel, we should be helping the caravan of people walking through Mexico against US colonial power, and he finished saying “Death to all oppressors”.

While there has been a lot of jumping up and down about people coming New Zealand who are alleged to be guilty of ‘hate speech’ this was not given a lot of attention by media and was applauded journalist Mihingarangi Forbes:

“I got some words for you. All of our armed forces and military that have been fighting these fake wars in Afghanistan and Iraq for oil, for USA imperialism – get out of there!

“What you need to be doing is going to Palestine to fight against the racist terrorism of the Israeli state. That’s where all of our fighting energy needs to be.”

I don’t think that going to Palestine to fight against Israel is a sensible idea – and while one might cynically think that the NZ armed forces are small enough to slip into Palestine without being noticed, this just sounds crazy.

“Get to the Mexican/USA border and defend that caravan of indigenous people seeking refugee status in the United Snakes of Ameri-KKK-a”.

“They’re seeking refuge because their countries have been wrecked by that colonial power known as the USA.”

“Death to all oppressors!”

Maybe Upper Hutt Posse won’t be doing a tour of the US.

But here this just gets a passing mention from media as if it was a harmless rant by a crazy bugger.

Frontman for hip-hop pioneers Upper Hutt Posse, Dean Hapeta, has gone on a remarkable tirade at the Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards, as his group were honoured with a legacy award.

In a controversial speech, Hapeta called for “death to all oppressors”.

I am sure it would be rarked up as more than ‘controversial’ if someone ‘non-indigenous’ called for the death of groups, whether Israel, the United States or otherwise.

This could be passed off as a crazy inconsequential rant by some fringe artist so it doesn’t matter, but it does indicate different standards for different people on speech that could be described as ‘hate speech’ or could be seen to be trying to provoke violence and murder.

UPDATE:

I deleted my tweet about Upper Hutt Posse. I don't support harm against anyone just simply remember UHP as a grassroots Māori hip hop group who stood for Māori rights and against oppression.

64 Comments

Gezza

“Fark: I just read that group’s frontman’s rant in more detail as described in the article. What a fucking moron. Wants to send nz troops to the Mexican border !

The singer also suggested that New Zealand sends troops to North America:
“Get to the Mexican/USA border and defend that caravan of indigenous people seeking refugee status in the United Snakes of Ameri-KKK-a,” he urged.

“They’re seeking refuge because their countries have been wrecked by that colonial power known as the USA.” He concluded the impassioned speech by saying “Death to all oppressors!”

Look at this bozo ! Obviously a keyboard warrior and a total deadshit !

Kitty Catkin

Fiery political speech? Hate speech? He’s just a pop singer trying to get some attention. No-one over the age of fourteen will take the slightest notice. His freedom to say silly things is far more important than the silliness of the things he says. Hopefully if he grows up he will realise how lucky he is to have that freedom. There are plenty of places that wouldn’t extend it to him; ironically, usually the places these pop singers most admire.

Gezza

Islam is not violently opposed to music, nor even opposed to music, sailor. Only one or two very extreme sects have that articular mental illness. It does not serve us well to make untrue claims & assertions about Islam because it opens one up to the retort that every criticism is as invalid as that false one.

Gezza

PDB

Aside from the fact the lead singer wants us to support a caravan of people wanting to settle in the USA even though according to him the USA is a total KKK shithole we have Mihi Forbes supporting the killing of North Americans & Israelis because she is a disadvantaged ‘Maori woman’ (double whammy there) who knows something about ‘oppression’.

Excuse me David, Māori have been oppressed for nearly two hundred years. Might I remind you Māori are at the wrong end of every statistic despite being promised equality and the right to resources. Don't tell this Māori woman what I can think.

PDB

robertguyton

Agreeing with what he said is your issue, perhaps. It’s surely down to the individual.
In any case, Hapeta “had his say” only because no one knew what he was going to talk about. Do you, PDB, support him having another chance, in a paid-for-by-the-public venue, broadcast far and wide? Or would you take to the blogs to protest?

PartisanZ

So in your Right Brigade world of ‘Don Brash equality’ regardless of race, religion, ethnicity and skin colour, where there are no full-blooded Maori left anyway, only part-Maori, you are calling her out because she’s too White! Give me a fucken break …

The Consultant

Actually I’m calling her out because she insists on making a meal out of only one part of her heritage – apparently the rest of it is too embarrassing to mention – and then lecturing and playing the oppression card with the rest of us.

Bit like Obama! 🙂

And if you want to see calling people out because they’re too white, just check out the African-American lane-control accusation of “Acting White”, which has been passed to all too many Maori kids here in NZ. Saw it in high school myself.

PartisanZ

As though “making a meal out of only one part of [anyone’s] heritage” is a rare thing …

Absolutely like so many others she’s making her living by enhancing one aspect of her heritage. A 1/16th or 1/64th Maori doctor living entirely Pakeha and practicing Western medicine is surely doing the same thing?

But don’t you think her wearing essentially Western clothing, writing, presenting and commenting on essentially Western media, no doubt living in a Western house and driving a Western car through the essentially Western world is some acknowledgement of “the rest” of her heritage …

So ubiquitous it goes unnoticed, so commonplace it goes without saying …

Our doctor’s favourite live entertainment might be Kapa Haka?

robertguyton

“She’s constantly telling the rest of us what we can think, about many things.”
Really? Telling us what to think???
Surely she’s presenting a view that we can take or leave as we choose – or are you saying Mikey what’s’s’name is “constantly telling the rest of us what we can think, about many things.”

Gezza

robertguyton

Gezza – let’s clear this up now; When I strike through a word and leave it in situ , it’s because I want you to see what I’ve replaced with my more suitable word, not because I’ve failed to tidy-up my editing. Tricky, I know, but there it is.

Gezza

Ok, let’s be quite clear about this, robert – so there are no misunderstandings. This is unacceptable to me. And I therefore feel obsessively obliged to point out on every occasion that this is an editing fail.

Gezza

Trevors_Elbow

ahhhh….. love it. You nice white bread safe suburb residents get to see the mentality that has been encouraged in the not so nice suburbs since the Seventies…..Maori Nationalism raises its ugly face again….white mofo’s are the root cause of all our problems….

Maori are oppressed… yip, so Dean will be carted of to prison for his rant? Yeah!, NAH!!!!

Maori are oppressed …yip, that’s why I have Maori mates who work as highly paid IT workers, because its impossible for Maori to succeed in a ‘white’ man’s world on their own merits… the fact they engage with the world and don’t hide behind its unfair or its hard seems to be the key to their success…

Ms Forbes talks about the bad statistics…. so what is she personally doing about getting in and raising educational standards among Maori?

It would appear the separatist ethic is taking hold hard among some activist Maori… I wonder what Sir Peter Buck and Sir Apirana Ngata would say to them?

Corky

PartisanZ

You’ll have to cite a reference Corky to prove to me either of them said that.

But some of T Elbow’s “activist Maori” – which presumably means any Maori who speaks out of turn – might say to Hiroa and Ngata: Dudes, you were right. We had to play them at their own game to beat them at it!

Corky

Corky

”04/01/05, Sir Apirana Ngata … but Ngata watched too many Maori preferring the bulrushes of welfare and state paternalism … instead of working hard for the best jobs that Pakeha still monopolised. … But political leadership they have not had.”

robertguyton

“Ms Forbes talks about the bad statistics…. so what is she personally doing about getting in and raising educational standards among Maori?”
What???
A political commentator can’t describe an issue unless they are actively doing something about it??? Jeeeeeeeeez!

PartisanZ

Robert, it is an old and oft used Right Brigade syllogism for which there must be a pithy name? The conflation of personal responsibility with macro-issues and events in search of the dreaded “hypocrisy”.

Corral the argument with childish “But he does it too!” or “You did it first!” accusations.

Taken to its logical conclusion you shouldn’t comment about war unless you’ve died in one!

It’s often expressed in terms of like driving a car or flying to a conference on Climate Change reduction. We never hear about those who support methane reduction legislation and also own dairy farms …

Kitty Catkin

robertguyton

Kitty – you’re being silly. Surely you can see that a victim of domestic violence, for example, who is too petrified to “do something about it” is not a hypocrite when they say, “I’m subject to violence and I think it’s wrong”, but is a victim , yes????? Pleeeease give this some thought and respond rationally!

robertguyton

PartisanZ

The end product of all the dichotomous, polarizing, either/or, black-or-white, nonsensical commodity bullshit presently floating the entire ‘media’ realm … a psycho-emotional relief valve for people … no understanding of the issues nor any balance is required …

Indeed, balance is actively discouraged … Since when did understanding and balance sell recordings, awards ceremonies, videos, websites or blogs?

robertguyton

Gezza

I’m sorry, that’s not exactly correct.. Whether there is a God is still very much open to debate, and the proposition under debate depends at any given time on exactly what concept of God is being proposed, what that God did or does and/or does not do.

Only the simple-minded think they know the answer to this question, from my experience.